Writer-director John Michael McDonagh - the marvelous mind behind the darkly comic Irish gem "The Guard" - has followed that up with a brooding drama that's often bleak but always absorbing. Once again, he gives the lead role to Brendan Gleeson, and the actor responds with a rich, multifaceted performance. Gleeson brings gravitas and a strong sense of decency to the role of a priest who is told, during a confession, that the unseen confessor is going to murder him. The person was sexually abused as a child by a since-deceased priest. He plans on killing Gleeson as retribution. Gleeson's character exudes goodness in a town full of bitterness, spite and selfishness. There are, too, some sparks of kindness - not just from the priest, but from his daughter (he was married before joining the church) and from a French woman whose husband dies in a car accident. "Calvary" possesses a strikingly desolate look, too, with McDonagh making full use of shooting in Ireland's County Sligo and capturing its harshly beautiful landscape.

- KRISTINA DORSEY